CURRENT EXHIBITION
Where We Are
On View: April 4th - April 25th
Opening Reception
April 4th, Saturday 6-9pm
Address
373 Van Brunt St, Red Hook, Brooklyn
Where We Are brings together three women painters - Lisa Lebofsky, Nicole Smedile, and Jessie Novik - whose distinct practices converge through an exploration of perception, environment, and emotional resonance within the genre of seascape. Moving between observation and imagination, the artists approach the sea not as a fixed subject, but as a shifting psychological and physical terrain. Smedile works through immersive, light-driven compositions drawn from embodied encounters with water; Novik employs imaginative realism to filter lived experience into symbolic, dreamlike scenes; and Lebofsky engages vulnerable landscapes through a plein air practice that embeds both the immediacy of place and the urgency of climate consciousness. Together, their works trace a fluid dialogue between inner and outer worlds, positioning the seascape as both a mirror and a threshold - an ever-changing reflection of where we stand, and how we come to understand where we are.
Lisa Lebofsky
Lisa Lebofsky is a nomadic plein air painter, collaborating with nature and people. She paints the susceptibility of nature, correlating its restlessness with our vulnerabilities. Her direct participation with the landscape is vital to imbue a painting with the energy of a specific place, so that viewers can connect viscerally: to move, excite and engage them. The paintings are on surfaces that remain visible through various layers of paint, permeating the entire image. The push and pull of lights and darks, opacity and transparency, abstract and real, enhances the variability of these transient scenes. By painting in this dichotomous manner, nature becomes a metaphor for our emotional struggles and encounters.
Lebofsky finds inspiration by traveling extensively, often to remote parts of the world, in order to immerse herself in different environments and cultures. She seeks out areas around the globe that are particularly susceptible to the impacts of climate change, and meets with local residents to discuss how their community is impacted. To a great extent, these personal interactions inform what areas and what subject matter is ultimately painted. Regions visited include Antarctica, Newfoundland and Labrador, Greenland, and The Maldives.
She is the recipient of awards including a 2024 NYFA Painting Grant, and residencies in: Shenandoah National Park, VA, Terra Nova National Park, Newfoundland, New Bedford Whaling Museum, MA, Saltonstall, NY, Tilting AIR, Fogo Island, Newfoundland, Jentel, WY. In 2023, Lisa was in the Tribeca Festival Artist Awards Program and her painting “Melting Iceberg 7” can be seen throughout Season 2 of Apple TV’s Severance. Lisa is back in New York after wrapping up a 3 year mission painting across North America to better know the changes happening in our environment and the people affected.
